Fall Beginings

It's September, which means that temperatures are in the high 80s and still flirt with the low 90s. So in other words its a northern summer. We probably won't get our first frost until mid November. That's what happened last year.

So, I've heard that this is the best season to grow things in this climate. I can understand why. I'm actually excited to get started. I planted nine broccoli seedlings. I am ashamed to say that I did not grow them from seed. My summer garden was almost exclusively from seed. I suppose that's just gardener's hubris.

I've also direct seeded some salad greens and a few root veggies. It will be interesting to see what works and what doesn't

Summer Wanes but the Heat Remains

This summer has actually been wetter and less hot than the last one. That doesn't mean it hasn't been hot, its just been less so. Anyway, my plants are doing ok. I harvested the muskmelon in the picture ( or cantaloupe) the other day from my vine trellis in the front yard. It's the most aromatic melon that's ever graced my olfactory scenes. The small potatoes I pulled a while ago, they are all that's left of what I harvested before it got too hot and my potato plants fried in the sun.

My backyard experiments have proven failures, the lack of sun just won't sustain anything I try to plant. It's kind of discouraging, becasue that's the only semi-large space I really have to plant

In other news, I',m getting a small plot in at the Frisco community garden. Yeah, I didn't know it existed either until recently. Most of the food they grow goes to the community food bank, as I understand it. I 'm excited to help out. I already shoveled several truck loads of mulch on Saturday for the garden. It was fun as shoveling mulch can be.

Garden Progress

My backyard presents an interesting problem. It gets only a small amount of sun per day, and that's only in localized areas. Since Texas likes to jump from the mid seventies in spring to the high 90s in June and even hotter in the two coming months, I have to plant things that are shade tolerant, as well as heat resistant. For obvious reasons, it's hard to find that combination. Still, I try.


The back bed has a smattering of things, from pole beans to cucumbers


I haven't finished the layout yet, but this is more or less the way things are. I'll probably be able to grow more things in the fall winter and spring, than in the violent throes of the Texas summer. Denizens of Hell ask to back after staying awhile here in the sun.


Here's the front yard.

I rent this house, so I still have a useless hedge and useless Saint Augustine grass. If i owned the place they'd be gone! Still I've made some ok beds, this one has some more vine varieties to preserve what little space I have. I've got more beans, some melons and cucumbers and some zucchini just coming out.



My small forest of Tomatoes of varied varieties, along with a few other heat lovers. I really need to get some more peppers, they're the only things that really put up with all this heat.

Garlic Harvest

I planted a dozen or so garlic cloves back in November. I haven't been keeping a very good garden journal, so I don't know exactly how long they've been in the ground. The past week half of the stalks started to brown and wilt. From what I've read, that means it's harvest time.


I sucessfully pulled out 11 bulbs of garlic. They were very aromatic. They look a little on the small side, but other than that look and smell ideal. They were extremly easy to grow. They were right up against my shed all winter and got the runoff from the roof. That and they were heavily mulched with leaves, so no weeding and no watering made them very easy to take care of.



I did an amature garlic braid and this is how they now appear in my kitchen.

Potatoes and Iron Age Technology.

Back in the winter I tried my hand at an old method for fencing, known was wattle. The people since the Iron Age have taken willow branches and woven them together to create fences for all purposes. Some craftsman still do this in the UK. I decided to build a container for my potatoes, and didn't want to use tires, so I thought about wattle. Not having willow branches at my disposal, I just used what ever branches I had. So this is what resulted.
They turned out looking very rustic, which give them a unique charm that you just can't get with some old tires. No offense to anyone who uses the tire method, I know it works very well. Today I took these pictures to show how my potatoes are doing.


All I've done is throw leaves and unfinished compost into the my potato basket, they seem to be growing rather well. We'll see what harvest they produce.

Heat n' Peppers

So I'm still getting used to this phenomenal heat issue with my plants. I'm trying every thing to help them produce something other than blossoms that wither and die after a few days. Thankfully my jalapeños are starting to show their beautiful wares. They seem to better than Tomatoes.


Jalapeño progression is pretty fast. This one has grown a lot in only a few days.

Before and After

Here is the first of the four raised beds that I constructed at the beginning of June. This picture was taken on June 12. The back row has 3 Tomatoes and 1 bell pepper plant. The next row has 4 peppers. The front row has cherry and grape tomatoes with five little bean sprouts.

I took these today, everything is growing rather well, despite the extreme heat. All the plants have many blossoms and a few are starting to indicate that they might perchance start to think of bearing some fruit.